We recently acquired a “marsh feed pump” for our steam launch from Chris McMullen, a friend out of New Zealand; he first got the piece from Portsmouth, N.H., so it’s done quite a bit of traveling! Chris is also working on creating an H.M. Co. steam replica. Don has been working on the pump since it came in.

Meanwhile, Bill has been cutting out the steam launch’s oak stern post, and Bern has been working on the keelson.

Over the past few weeks, the crew has been working tediously to construct the steam ship as precisely as we can. Now that the ribs are curved and attached to the larger vessel, the team had begun shaping the large keel plank.

After these poor souls’ seemingly endless toil, we were left with a keel plank that, when laid out on the boat, fits on very well! A few imperfections here and there, but that’s for another time.